The present invention is related to bending presses and, more particularly, to bending presses for the forming of workpieces in which stops for the workpiece may be moved along a positioning rail.
Bending presses are known to come in many different designs. Usually every bending press has a rear stop against which the workpiece to be edged is placed before the bending operation, so that the edge is made in precisely the right place. These rear stops can be adjusted on the X-axis, i.e., in the plane of the workpiece and perpendicular to the bending line, and can be adjusted in the R-axis, i.e., perpendicular to the plane of the workpiece. This adjustment must be made manually on many presses and is done on other bending presses by drive motor or a mechanism which may be a pneumatically or hydraulically operated piston. Some bending presses also have a front stop and, possibly, side stops by which the position of the workpiece in the work area can be precisely determined and, when necessary, changed.
The rear stops in most machines are either a one piece stop strip or several individual stops spaced apart along a support. Here again, both the stop strip and the individual stops can be adjusted in position either manually or by means of a drive mechanism for this purpose. It is also known that when the rear stop is in the form of several individual stops, the individual stops can be disposed along the Z-axis, i.e., in the direction of the bending line. Moreover, the distance between the individual stops can be changed either manually or with an appropriate drive mechanism.
With regard to bending presses, it is also known that the drive for the vertical movement of the bending tool is actuated by a hydraulic device. When the bending tool is in its resting position, then the control mechanism device is locked by a mechanism that prevents it from being unintentionally switched ON until the operator consciously deactivates it, so that only then does the lift actuating device activate the drive. In this way, any unintentional activation of the lift actuating device will be prevented.
In simple bending presses, the individual stops are usually positioned manually. However, to do this, the operator must reach from his work area over the bending line to the stop area. This is awkward on the one hand, and not without danger on the other hand.
It is an object of the present invention is to improve a novel bending press in which the position of the stops may be adjusted manually without danger.
It is also an object to provide such a bending press which may be fabricated readily and relatively economically.
Another object is to provide such a bending press in which the stops are firmly clamped during machine operations and readily movable when operation is disabled.
Further advantages, features and details of the invention can be seen in stem from the following description in which, with reference to the drawing, a particularly preferred example of embodiment is illustrated in detail.